Foreign policy analyst George Friedman draws on his Hungarian immigrant roots to examine the question of what exactly is this thing we call “Europe?” He makes observations I’ve often puzzled over concerning the various countries that make up the European Union and NATO.
Crucially, Europe is not a country. It is a continent containing, according to the United Nations, some 44 countries. They have different languages, cultures and histories, which include wars with neighbors and mutual loathing.
Western and Eastern Europe are still very different places, and it is now Eastern Europe, not Germany, that divides the Continent.
Eastern Europe, despite its distrust of itself and its former occupiers in Russia and Germany, must make a decision that will define the Continent. Will it stand together, or will it stand apart?
Efforts such as the Visegrád Group reflect attempts of Eastern Europe to “stand together.” Conflicts such as the ‘divorce’ between the Czech Republic and Slovakia reflect forces pushing them apart.
